Michel Salerno

"Dans l'eau des Jardins," Unique Handmade Mirror

France, 2016

MS 30

Description

Dimensions: 24.5 in diameter

Medium: Bronze, copper, black nickel

Michel Salerno, a master metal-smith born in Nice, has been a professor at the École Nationale Supérieure des Beaux-Arts for twenty-five years. Using centuries-old techniques, and evoking motifs older still, Salerno produces work that, nonetheless, is strikingly contemporary. This innovative character is managed by reflection. While the pieces are framed in classically lush, bronze details, often depicting natural subjects, the 'mirrors' themselves are dark, opaque, or dappled, and produce at best an irresolute image. In effect, the pieces draw a stark contrast between the timeless quality of art and the fleeting nature of all else.